


Afterword

by AshStoryLover123



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Angst with a Happy Ending, Betrayal, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Torture, Love Confessions, M/M, Protectiveness, Survivor Guilt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:49:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 9,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26630899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshStoryLover123/pseuds/AshStoryLover123
Summary: I shouldn’t have stopped looking for her,” Andy says.“It was an impossible mission Andy,” he replies softly.“If it had been Joe,” she starts.“You’ve asked this of me before,” he interjects firmly.And he’d never given her an answer, not once. In his world, room for questions like those did not exist. From the very first time he’d laid eyes on Yusuf, as they’d struck against each other on the bloodied sands of Jerusalem, he’d known their fates were entwined. Their love had come after, but that bond.It was as sure as the beat of his heart.Takes place right after the events of the movie, with Quynh’s return.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Quynh | Noriko, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 6
Kudos: 165





	1. Nile

It’s been a week since Booker’s exile began, since Andy discovered her mortality, since she’d jumped out the window of a ten-story building and crumpled a car on impact. Copley’s still tying up loose ends, under Nicky’s strict supervision. 

If Booker had been here, Nile knows it would have been him but she admits Nicky’s not half bad with technology for a 900 year-old immortal being.

Andy’s still adjusting to life without immortality. Nile doubts she’ll ever be completely adjusted to her newfound tendency to bruise and ache, not after how many ever years she’s been immortal. Nile’s still not sure about the exact number but judging by Copley’s picture wall, it’s well past the thousands.

It’s close to dinner time when Nicky gets home after hanging around Copley all day. His brow’s furrowed, hair mussed like he’d been running his fingers through it far too many times. Joe’s moving towards him on instinct, eyes scanning his body for any sign of injuries. 

“What’s wrong,” Andy asks. Nile almost jumps. She’d been so sure that the woman was asleep on the battered rocking chair after begrudgingly sitting through a single episode of Friends. 

“Copley passed on a message,” Nicky starts.

Andy just waits for him to continue. Joe’s done scanning Nicky for any bodily harm but he’s still tense, spine ram-rod straight.

After all, even Nile’s come to know at this point that few things make Nicky as fazed as he is now.

“Booker needs our help,” he says. 

Joe lets out a dark chuckle at that. 

“Is the man incapable of understanding what exile means,” he says.

His callousness would have been believable if Nile hadn’t noticed the tension increase in him, his fists now clenched where they crossed his chest. 

Nicky’s only got eyes for Andy as Joe mumbles more choice swears under his breath. But he’s begun to pace, a clear sign of his agitation as he struggles with the information.

Nicky reaches into his pocket and unfolds a paper, passing it to Andy. Nile sidles up behind the armchair, peering over her shoulder at the grainy photograph. It’s the safe house Booker’s currently at, a fact, they’re all aware of because despite the exile, Andy still keeps track of where he is.

And standing at the doorstep of the apartment building wearing a billowing red cloak is a familiar figure that Nile can’t quite place. Andy gasps and the paper slips out of her hand. Joe’s at her side in seconds, reaching for the paper.

His whole face morphs into a myriad of emotions that Nile can’t even begin to comprehend. 

“Quynh,” he breathes.

Nile almost chokes on air. She darts up to Joe’s side to stare at the photo again. The woman’s mostly facing away from the camera, and in all honesty Nile couldn’t completely connect her with the woman in her nightmares.

But if Joe’s trembling hands are anything to go by, it’s her.

Andy moves out of the room, bumping into a table as she stumbles out the door. Nicky shoots Joe a look, clearly torn, before racing after Andy. Joe collapses onto the couch, still holding onto the photo like a lifeline.

Nile gently pries the photo out of his clenched fingers before he crumples it any further. She sits beside him, shoulder to shoulder, knowing he’ll talk when he’s ready.

Of all of them, he seems to be the best at expressing his emotions instead of pushing them away. He slumps after a second, dropping his head to his hands and running fingers through his curls.

Nile hesitantly wraps an arm around him, rubbing her hand up and down his arm.

“I can’t believe she’s still alive,” he says after a long silence.

“You know about my dreams though,” she points out. 

“I know but I still hoped, hoped she wouldn’t be suffering. I wanted, believed fate wouldn’t be so cruel,” he says. 

His voice is an agonized, wretched thing and words that usually come to him easily are stuttered torrents now. Like even with his expansive vocabulary and languages, he can’t find the right words. 

“500 years in a box Nile,” he says. It’s gut wrenching.

The tears finally spill over and Nile rests her head on his shoulder, wrapping both her arms around him. He holds her close, and he’s still crying when Nicky and Andy finally return. Andy’s face is a blank mask, but it crumples when Joe pulls away from Nile and pulls Andy into a bone crushing hug. 

Nicky watches on with a trembling lower lip before glancing down at the photograph that Nile still held between her fingers. His brow creases as he silently takes the picture from her and pockets it.


	2. Nicky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicky and Andy talk about Quynh.

Nicky’s torn between staying beside Joe and running after Andy, but in the end he races after her. She’s leaning up against a tree and Nicky carefully picks his way across the ground wrought with overgrown roots before stepping up to her side. 

Her face is tilted up to face the moon, and the light’s enough to catch the faint sheen of tears in her eyes. 

Nicky cannot imagine what she’s feeling. 900 years on this earth and he’s still confronted with unfamiliar waters. He gives her the silence she came out here for even as he sees how much she struggles to keep her tears at bay. A frustrated sound escapes her and he can’t help but flinch as she brings down her fist on the bark of the tree behind her.

Her knuckles bleed and the reminder of her newfound mortality still feels like like the ground beneath his feet’s shifted. 

Her first words to break the silence are hardly wavering but he hasn’t known this woman for near millennia to be fooled so easily. 

“I shouldn’t have stopped looking for her,” Andy says.

“It was an impossible mission Andy,” he replies softly. 

“If it had been Joe,” she starts.

“You’ve asked this of me before,” he interjects firmly. 

And he’d never given her an answer, not once. In his world, room for questions like those did not exist. From the very first time he’d laid eyes on Yusuf, as they’d struck against each other on the bloodied sands of Jerusalem, he’d known their fates were entwined. Their love had come after but that bond.

It was as sure as the beat of his heart. 

There was simply no world that could exist where Joe was locked away at the bottom of the ocean, drowning endlessly, while Nicky continued to walk this earth. 

“She’ll blame us,” Andy says. Her tone implies that she believes she deserves it.

But it had been him. Only him. He’d been the first to suggest that they take some time after he’d nearly lost Joe and Andy to the ocean. Joe never would have suggested a break but that was Joe, filled with that inextinguishable fire that shielded everyone he loved, and burned everyone that lost his trust. 

Joe would have spent the rest of his immortal life diving into oceans, regardless of the impossible odds. Nicky had once asked him how he could find the strength to do so, many years after Quynh, and he’d said, 

Look at where we started and where we are now ya hayati. Does that not seem impossible? Did it not happen anyway? 

In fact it was Andy that finally accepted the impossibility of their mission, long before Joe had. They still tracked leads when they could, but as leads dwindled, so did their hopes of ever finding her.

Until he finally suggested they stop, claiming that if they couldn’t save their friend, they could help others. 

He and Joe had gotten into one of the worst arguments they’d ever had that day as Andy drifted into a near comatose state. It had taken nearly a century to help her through that grief, to help her find purpose again. 

All that time and more ran through Nicky’s mind as he stood by Andy in silence.

“I failed her Nicky,” she finally says. She’s never sounded older to him than she did then. 

“We did Andy,” he admits. He reaches out to turn her towards him, keeping a hand wrapped around her bruised knuckles. 

“But we can still make this right. We can bring her home,” he says firmly.

“500 years,” Andy whispers. A single tear finally slides down her cheek.

“Fate would not bring her back to us like this if we couldn’t help her Andy,” he states.

At times even he feels foolish for how much he believes in fate and destiny. But it was destiny that brought him Joe, brought him Andy, Booker and now Nile. It’s fate that’s allowed him to help so many in this world. 

It would be fate that allowed him to help Quynh as well and make things right.


	3. Joe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joe and Nicky talk about Quynh.

It’s close to midnight when Andy finally drifts off on the armchair. Nile pushes a pillow under her head before returning to her bed. Joe pulls her back by the wrist, and she indulges him with a soft smile.

He itches to draw her then, for how much kindness she seems to radiate like a beacon. 

“We are very lucky to have found you,” he says earnestly. 

Her cheeks redden a little as he lets her arms drop back to her side. She shrugs her shoulder, which roughly translates to, no big deal.

He scoffs at that and takes both her hands in his.

“I mean it Nile. You’re one of the fiercest, kindest souls I’ve ever encountered. You returned to rescue us mere days after you’d met us. You fell through a window to protect Andy,” he starts.

“Well it’s not like I can die,” she interjects. She’d squirming a little under the weight of his words and her eyes are shiny. He squeezes her hands lightly before dropping them.

“I’m honored to call you my sister, my family,” he says. 

A tear creeps down her cheek and she hastily wipes it away with the back of her hand before returning to her bed. Her breathing’s evened out by the time Nicky enters the room. He’s silent as he clambers onto the bed and presses his side up against Joe’s.

Nicky’s head falls against his shoulder, and Joe lifts a hand to run through the slightly unruly strands of his hair.

“We should wait on a little more information from Copley before going,” Nicky says. 

Joe pulls back a little to look him in the eye, confused.

“It was her Nicky. I’d know her anywhere,” he says. 

“Booker said he needed help Joe. That means trouble,” Nicky counters. 

Booker’s name brings on another tide of anger, hurt and frustration searing through him. If the Frenchman had somehow managed to get himself into trouble in the one week they’d left him alone, Joe was going to kill him when he found him. 

“Screw Booker,” Joe hisses. He knows he sounds like a child but Nicky only makes a clicking noise, ever patient, as he presses closer to him. Nicky’s hand covers his heart, and Joe brings up his own hand to intertwine with it.

“Quynh has spent the last 500 years in the ocean drowning Joe. She’s not the same woman we lost,” Nicky says softly.

“She’s still Quynh,” Joe says stubbornly. He’s not sure who he’s trying to convince.

All he knows is that he’ll never be able to forgive himself if she’s broken in a way that can’t be fixed after he abandoned her to her fate all those years ago. She has to be their Quynh, or eventually be their Quynh. The woman he traded stories over warm fires with. The woman that called him her brother within just days of meeting him.

“She is still Quynh but she has been tortured in a most inhumane way Yusuf,” Nicky says.

“We’ll find her. We’ll help her,” Joe replies instantly. 

He turns to face Nicky, who tilts his head back so their foreheads fall against each other. 

“We will help her Joe. I’m only urging us to be careful,” Nicky says.

He can tell Joe isn’t convinced, because despite understanding exactly where Nicky’s coming from, Joe cannot make out Quynh to be a threat in his mind. It’s foolish, but she’s frozen in his memory exactly as he lost her. 

“We’ve just saved ourselves Joe. I can’t, I don’t,” Nicky says, before faltering.

Nicky draws in a long breath before releasing it shakily. 

And Joe remembers all too vividly, the bullet through Nicky’s mouth, the blood and bones he’d washed out of his hair later. The fear of being trapped and experimented on forever. They hadn’t taken much time to recover since then, hadn’t even taken much time to breath. 

“We’ll be careful Nicky. We’ll wait,” Joe says immediately.

He lifts a hand to cup the back of Nicky’s neck, finger stroking over the light stubble on his jawline. Nicky’s still far away, mind trapped in the lab that they could have spent eternity in. 

“And once Quynh is back, and better, we’ll spend a year in Malta,” Joe promises teasingly. 

And it’s all it takes for Nicky to return to him. 

The corner of Nicky’s mouth quirks up in a smile and after all these years, after all he’s seen, he still thinks it’s most the beautiful sight the world has to offer. 

He’d once teasing Nicky about how a little flirtation was enough to dispel his cloudy moods. Nicky had chuckled wryly at that, shaking his head as he replied matter-of-factly. 

It’s not the flirting Yusuf. It’s just you. Your voice. 

And then he’d proceeded to comment on a shawl he’d noticed in one of the market stalls they’d walked past, like the words he’d uttered weren’t the sweetest ones Joe had ever heard. 

“Make it two years,” Nicky murmurs against his lips, bringing him back to the present. 

Joe laughs a little and they fall into their usual place, with Nicky tucked against his chest. Neither of them sleep much that night, but they stay like that. Two bodies, one soul. Nicky’s heartbeat is steady beneath the palm of his hand and in it, Joe finds his peace. 

Joe doubts he’ll find any sleep though until Quynh returns, and the haunted look he’s seen on Andy’s face far too many times over the past centuries finally begins to fade.


	4. Andy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team forms a plan to get Booker and Quynh.

It’s an effort to listen to Nicky as he urges them to wait for Copley to gather a little more information. A day passes. Two. She’s so wound up at this point that she accidentally unleashes far more of her skill than she’d planned while training against Nile.

Nile only increases the intensity of her attacks but Andy knows she’d be covered in far too many bruises and cuts if they didn’t fade.

And there was the other thing, the bruises and cuts, the physical weariness like all her years had suddenly descended upon her. For the first time she finds herself wishing for immortality, if only to not feel the sharp gaze of Joe or Nicky latch onto her whenever she so much as tripped. She’s snapped at them for it more than once, but their concern doesn’t shift in the slightest.

It’s two days after the arrival of the photograph, which Andy keeps tucked into her pocket at all times, when Copley informs them that Booker’s been taken by Quynh. He sends them the location and Andy’s done waiting. 

After so many years, Quynh, in the flesh, breathing and beautiful and alive. For a second she’s tempted to simply ignore the rest of Copley’s statement. 

But Nicky’s cautious again. He stares at Copley’s email like its a snake about to turn venomous. 

“We need to move Nicky,” Andy says.

He turns away from the laptop screen, chewing into his bottom lip. Joe and Nile come out of the kitchen and the small smiles on their faces, courtesy of the family recipe that Nile was teaching Joe, fade instantly.

“This is too easy boss. It feels too much like a trap,” he warns.

Before Andy can say a word, Nile speaks up. She looks apologetic as she crosses the room to Nicky’s side.

“He’s right. From what you’ve told me about Quynh, she’s far too intelligent to let security cameras catch her,” Nile adds.

She’s terribly nervous and at another time Andy would have urged her not to be. Whether they were as old as her, or merely twenty years old, they were bound together in a bond that age held no part of. Quite literally. 

“She was drowned long before all this technology,” Joe protests. 

But then he catches Nicky’s gaze and a silent conversation passes between them that even Andy isn’t privy to. Perhaps it’s things like this that made Booker betray them. She dismisses the train of thought that it immediately devolves into, all about Booker.

Booker was wrong. He was grieving but he was wrong. 

“We need to go after her Nicky,” Joe says after several beats of silence, more for the benefit of everyone else.

Nicky shifts his gaze from Joe to her. She can feel Joe’s eyes on her too. It was her call, always would be.

“Two of us will go in. The other two stay back in case of trouble,” she finally says.

Nicky nods, clearly satisfied with that result.

“Nile and I will go. You two stay,” she adds. 

Joe’s first to react, protesting soundlessly for a second with waving hands before he articulates his distress.

“You’re mortal now Andy and Nile is still very new,” he says.

“I’m the only one here who can match Quynh in a fight, and Nile will cover me,” Andy replies tonelessly.

“Boss this is Quynh,” Nicky emphasizes. Like Andy doesn’t know, like even the thought of fighting Quynh doesn’t make her want to turn her labrys against herself. 

“Take me with you. Joe is right. Nile is new,” Nicky says. 

“No offense Nile,” he adds, glancing her way.

“None taken. I am new,” Nile replies immediately. 

Nicky glances at Joe then, whose lips are sealed in a thin white line. He nods nevertheless but Andy can tell how much it pains him. It’s why she can count on one hand the number of times she’s purposefully split them up on missions. 

But Joe is right and between Nicky and Joe, Nicky’s less volatile right now, especially considering the added problem of Booker. And it’s a testament to how worried they both are, that they’re willing to split up. She’d be cruel to not acknowledge that fear. 

“Fine. Nicky and I go. You two are backup,” she agrees. 

Joe nods tightly and Andy’s tempted to actually thank God for a second when Nile drags him back into the kitchen to continue their meal, cracking enough mediocre jokes to earn a smile from him. She really was a blessing. Nicky comes to sit beside her, reaching out a hand to entwine their fingers.

“It will all work out for the better Andy,” he says.

“Ever the optimist,” she jokes half-heartedly.

He doesn’t laugh, his fingers tightening instead.

“I ask the same of you, what I asked of Joe as well. Caution, Andy. You’re mortal now. We can’t lose you just yet,” he says.

She knows he doesn’t mean it with reference to her skill. He was there when she’d fallen apart over Quynh, there to help her through those dark days alongside Joe. He knows that she can’t raise a sword against Quynh, regardless of what her time in the ocean has turned her into. 

“I will not hurt Quynh. She is not evil Nicky,” she says bluntly, like then both don’t already know that. Nicky recoils a little bit but quickly schools his features. 

“No she is not evil, but her actions may be. I’m not asking you to pass judgement on them, but I need you to defend yourself against them if need be,” he says carefully, each word premeditated.

He still speaks like a priest, despite how far his faith in God has wavered over his lifetime. It’s grounding and at times, Andy swears she can feel the force of his faith like the warmth of the sun on her back.

“If it’s my time, it’s my time Nicky,” she finally says. 

“After all this, you deserve your remaining years with Quynh. I believe that. So let me be your shield tomorrow, if you cannot defend yourself,” he concedes. 

He will back off if she pushes, claiming she doesn’t need a shield. She goes first, always. Not even her newfound mortality made her any less of wrath incarnate on a battlefield. But it was Quynh and wrath had nothing to do with any of it.

So she nods heavily and Nicky lets out a breath of relief that she hadn’t even realized he’d been holding in. 

And her thoughts drift back to Booker for reasons she can’t articulate. If only he hadn’t weighed his grief against Nicky and Joe’s joy, he’d have seen the love they held for this family.


	5. Nicky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicky and Joe think on the past.

Joe’s mechanically putting away dishes when he steps into the kitchen. Andy and Nile train outside and Nicky only hopes Andy restrains herself better this time. While Nile cannot bruise, he still doesn’t wish to scare her off.

Of all of them, she’s probably had the worst introduction to immortality apart from Andy. When all this is behind them, they’ll have to show her the silver lining too, like the bonds they form between themselves that are stronger than anything mortals can hope to have, like the good they’re capable of doing with the skills they’ve been blessed with.

“Lost in thought habibi?” 

Nicky shakes off his train of thought at Joe’s voice. He joins him in putting away the last of the dishes before leaning heavily against the kitchen counter with Joe beside him.

“Careful tomorrow,” Joe says quietly. The fact that he says as much betrays his frayed nerves. The last mission that they’d been split up during was over fifty years ago, when they’d had to go undercover to penetrate a drug ring. Even then, when the violence had begun, Joe had returned to his side. 

Nicky knew that they might not be so lucky this time. 

“I always am careful Joe,” Nicky replies. 

Joe peels himself off the counter to stand before him, hands on either side of Nicky’s waist. There’s a storm being waged in Joe’s warm brown eyes and Nicky has no doubts of all that’s at the center of it.

“This is all, very new,” Joe confesses tightly.

It’s a broad statement that encompasses everything from Andy’s mortality to Quynh’s reappearance. They’ve both seen centuries pass with little change in their world. There were two-hundred stable years with Booker with little change apart from the missions they took on. 

And while Nicky knows Nile’s arrival has done little to upset their equilibrium, it, combined with everything else is more change than they’ve experienced in a long time.

“This is not new,” Nicky finally replies, sliding a hand over to cover Joe’s. 

Joe lets a long sigh escapes him. He leans forward, bending a little to allow his forehead to fall on Nicky’s shoulder. Nicky wraps an arm around Joe’s back and he’s content to stay just like that for a very long time.

“Quynh will dredge up old memories,” Joe whispers against his shoulder.

Nicky knows he doesn’t mean the wonderful ones, where it was just the Andy, Quynh, Joe and him exploring the world with all the excitement of the youth. They’d felt invincible then and it had taken one act of cruelty to shatter that illusion. 

A particularly painful conversation rears it’s ugly head and Nicky holds Joe tighter on instinct. It was soon after the arrival of Booker, and Joe, ever the romantic, was quick to defend Nicky’s kindness when Booker had said something particularly cynical. Then Andy had mentioned Lykon and Quynh, and a wave of suffocation had blanketed him. It had been the first time she’d mentioned Quynh’s name in over a century. 

Joe found him later, curled up in a ball under the stars. 

***Flashback***

“I don’t think it’s a warm enough night to sleep under the stars Nicolo,” Joe said. 

He crouched before him, gently prying his arms away from where they wrapped around his knees. His brow furrowed with confusion as he palmed Nicky’s cheek only to find it wet with tears.

“Was it something I said habibi? Or Booker? He’s still grieving Nicolo,” Joe started, faintly alarmed. 

Nicky shook his head and his voice had come out sounding like gravel.

“Something I did Yusuf,” he said.

Joe only waited for him to continue. 

“I’m not as kind as you make me out to be,” Nicky finally said after a long silence.

Joe scoffed, like the very thought of it was ridiculous. 

“Your heart is the the only source of unwavering light that I’ve ever seen in all these years. To know it beats for me makes me a better man than I’d ever be otherwise. Now where is this coming from,” Joe asked. 

Those heartfelt words, that had always lifted Nicolo out of whatever darkness he found himself in, had pressed on him with the weight of mountains instead. He hadn’t even been able to look at Yusuf’s eyes. 

“I suggested we stop searching for Quynh,” he finally admitted.

Joe fell silent and the hands that had clasped Nicky’s wrist had abruptly fallen away.

“There was no kindness there Yusuf, for abandoning our sister to such a cruel fate. You’ve said it yourself,” he said.

Joe made a pained sound then, somewhere between a scream and a cry. But they’d both remembered all too clearly, that terrible fight, when Yusuf had yelled that their hands would be forever stained if they gave up on Quynh, and there’d be nothing they could do to erase that.

“Nicolo surely you haven’t carried those words with you all these years,” Joe whispered.

Nicky’s silence spoke volumes and Joe pulled him onto his lap then, so Nicky’s legs extended on either side of his waist. His hand had come up to cup the back of Nicky’s head, cradling him like a child. There eyes had clashed and whatever Joe had seen on his face tore another pained sound from his lips.

“I said them in the heat of the moment Nicolo. I was so angry with the world,” Joe pleaded.

“But you were right mi amore. There is nothing I can do to right my wrongs with her,” Nicky said.

“Nicolo look at me,” Joe pleaded. And Nicky had, and he’d let Yusuf’s next words wash over him like a tidal wave carrying him back to shore. 

“We carry the guilt of Quynh with us for the rest of our lives. It is ours to carry, just as all the good we’ve done is ours as well. There is no balance, no scale we can use to weigh them and see if we are more good than evil, more kind or unkind. The world is not black and white enough for that,” Joe started. 

His voice dropped down to a low whisper, the words meant for Nicolo alone.

“I believe you overflow with kindness not because you haven’t made mistakes Nicolò. We’ve both been alive far too long to have led perfect lives. I find you kind for all the love you still have to give, that fuels what you feel for me and the guilt you carry for Quynh. You have always tried to do the right thing Nicolo and you are not not unkind for not always having succeeded,” Joe finished. 

“Quynh will still weigh on me,” he said.

“It is a weight we’ll share together,” Joe promised. 

***End of Flashback***

“The weight of those memories is ours to share Joe,” Nicky says, mind drifting back to the present. 

“Always,” Joe replies, lifting his head off of Nicky’s shoulder to plant a lingering kiss on his forehead.


	6. Nile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Andy and Nicky go to save Booker and Quynh.

Nile’s only a little surprised when she learns that Joe’s a highly competent sniper. Considering he’s been fighting in wars and rescuing people for near millennia, it only made sense. Nicky’s still the best of the group but Joe’s a close second despite all the restless, unbound energy she always senses in him. He’s perfectly still now as he eyes the building Andy and Nicky enter and Nile’s lying at his side with binoculars glued to her eyes. 

Joe tracks them through the windows but there’s nothing to see and little commotion coming through the earpieces. As the seconds tick by, Nile’s unease increases. Joe’s quiet beside her but she can feel the nervousness radiating off him.

It’s a constant, like he’s simply off kilter after all these years when Nicky isn’t within his orbit.

A couple words come through the earpieces. Mostly just all clears from Nicky. Then the building explodes, roof collapsing inward with the force of the explosion. Andy’s name rips from her in a scream before she can help it. Joe’s already moving, pulling her along by the wrist, cursing under his breath in a slew of languages Nile can’t hope to decipher. 

He shouts into the earpieces once, twice. There’s no response. The building they’re at is isolated enough that no crowds gather. In fact, there isn’t a soul in sight.

Nicky’s words echo through her head, filling her mind with panic.

“Joe this is a trap,” she starts. 

He barely hears her over his own screaming. There’s only radio silence on the other side. The last part of the roof caves in and a full body flinch passes through Joe like he’d been under it. 

“Joe we can’t get caught too,” Nile insists. She pulls him to a stop by his shirt sleeve and she’s more than a little surprised when he actually turns to listen to her. His eyes are wild, unhinged even. 

“We need to get of here Joe,” she states. 

Before he can say anything in return, words come through the earpieces. Loud voices. Andy’s, pained and angry, but very much alive.

Nicky’s voice comes through more quieter and the relief that runs through Joe is almost palpable as he rests a hand over his own heart like it’s just restarted. 

But then there are other sounds, footsteps. Gunshots that have both of them flinching and reflexively jerking towards the building. One loud unmistakable voice rises above it all, instantly recognizable despite the little time she’s known it. A slew of curses leaves her own mouth as Joe’s grip on her wrist tightens almost to the point of pain. When she catches his eye, there is nothing of the man she’s come to know.

Only deep unending rage that fuels Nile’s own as surely as it could set fire to the world if Joe chose to unleash it. 

Because the voice is Copley’s and despite the evident betrayal, Nile almost finds herself pitying the man for the hell that’s about to come his way.


	7. Nicky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicky and Andy find themselves captured.

It’s not the right time but he can’t help but admire the way the bombs were set up, to carefully bring down an entire building apart from the single room they were in. Unless people looked upon the wreckage through an aerial view, they’d see nothing but debris.

He thanks God silently for allowing him a chance to assure Joe and Nile that he and Andy had survived the explosion before the earpieces were ripped away from him. Nicky’s been here before. Many times. The handcuffs around his wrists and ankles, and the drug induced haze he finds himself in is not surprising.

He catalogs Andy beside him for any injuries but he’d bodily shielded her from the brunt of the impact. A few scratches but she’s seen far far worse. Her mouth’s set in a grim line as she tests her restraints before sinking against the wall behind her. Not in defeat. She was just conserving her strength for the right moment. 

And watching her then, eyes closed, breath even, Nicky remembers another time. It nags at the far edge of his memory considering it’s close to 900 years old. It had been the first time they’d been captured together, he, Andy and Joe. 

And it had been Quynh to rescue them then and the bitter irony of his current predicament doesn’t escape him. 

The door to the room swings open and despite how much he’d expected it, he’s still surprised when Booker’s being dragged in by four armed guards, in similar restraints. Booker’s eyes go to Andy first, scanning her for injuries as the guards plant him down against the far wall. He’s lost weight, Nicky notices and the dark circles under his eyes are more pronounced. 

But there was that same brittle edge that Booker wrapped himself in, the battle armor of a heartbroken man that Nicky had spent the last 200 years trying to chip away unsuccessfully. 

“Your exile hardly lasted a week before you landed in trouble,” Andy says.

She hadn’t even opened her eyes. 

“I had a visitor,” he replies grimly.

Booker turns to him, flinching a little as he watches Nicky’s mutilated leg slowly heal itself. 

“Nicky,” he says, like they’d never been apart. 

Booker hadn’t apologized for what he’d done, not once, not after all Joe had yelled at him. Nicky could understand his grief, understand that it had misguided him. Understand that in some ways it was their fault, for failing Booker, for not addressing his sorrow more, for letting him drink his problems away.

For letting him believe he was truly alone.

The night after the exile had been declared, Nicky had tried saying as much to Joe. 

***Flashback***

“He was in pain Joe. He doesn’t hate us for what we have. He felt alone,” Nicky said. 

Joe yanked on a black t-shirt somewhat aggressively, still breathing flames.

“Well now he actually is alone. Perhaps he’ll be be able to tell the difference in 100 years,” Joe snapped. 

“Joe,” Nicky exhaled. Not in impatience. Joe had all the right in the world to be angry and he felt a kernel of that anger still wedged into his own heart as well.

But this was Booker. 

“You think a century is too much,” Joe said. 

Nicky didn’t even have to nod to convey as much but he’d hoped to have this conversation when the betrayal felt a little less fresh for both of them. 

“He had us captured and if he’d had his way, we’d have spent the rest of our immortals lives being prodded at,” Joe started ranting.

Joe had said as much, in more and less descriptive ways, at least 20 times in the last day alone. Like Nicky didn’t know how badly things could have gone, like his nights wouldn’t be haunted by it. 

“You weigh his actions by the consequences, by what actually happened. But all I can think of is what could have happened Nicky, what he intended to have happen. Shouldn’t that be what he’s judged by,” Joe asked angrily. 

He crouched before Nicky, head of curls dropping onto his knees. Nicky let his fingers run through them as Joe continued to mumble.

“He is a grown man Nicky, 200 years grown to be precise. He can be held accountable for his actions,” he murmured.

“Immortality makes us all children Joe,” Nicky replied softly. 

Joe huffed out a breath. 

“He won’t do it again Joe. You know,” Nicky started.

Joe’s head snapped up, those brown eyes clashing with his, betraying anguish and hurt so openly that it felt like a noose had suddenly settled around his neck.

“How do I know that Nicky? Did he express his regret to you,” Joe pressed.

And Nicky had been left dumbfounded at that.

***End of Flashback*** 

To here no hint of remorse, not even for the fact that he’d shot Andy, was unacceptable. Nicky had been unable to argue with Joe past that. 

Because it meant Booker might do it again given time, and Nicky couldn’t allow that to happen to the rest of his family. He couldn’t really allow Booker to do it to himself either. 

His thoughts on Booker come to a screeching halt as the door opens again. Time seems to slow down as a woman steps through, pulling the red hood off her head with a smile that holds no trace of the woman he’d once considered a part of his family as well. 

Andy’s pained gasp comes out as a whimper and Nicky shifts as close to her as he can. 

“Andromache,” Quynh says.

And Nicky’s again amazed by how life continues to show him new experiences, unveil new fears, as he watches Andy faint for the very first time in his very long life.


	8. Joe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joe and Nile find Nicky and Andy.

Joe’s first suggestion is to run through the building, all guns blazing. But if Copley’s behind this, it means more manpower than Quynh or Booker alone could have mustered. He runs through various plans over the centuries, sharing the ones he feels are useful until Nile finally agrees with one.

They steal building plans first before adapting their plan. Joe tries not to let the thought of Nicky hurt detail him, but he’s lost without Nicky just as the night sky would be lost without the moon. 

Screw years, they’d spend decades in Malta when this was all over if Nicky wished to.

The plan involves underground sewage tunnels and cramped space that Nile’s trying her best not to be terrified by. He makes a joke that perhaps it’s claustrophobia that had her flying out the window over taking the elevator at Merrick’s. She laughs for his sake and he reaches back to take her hand in his. 

The tunnels let up into a small room in the building that’s been reduced to rubble. Nile dry heaves against a broken wall the moment fresh air hits their faces again. Its pitch black darkness, even the moon’s barely a sliver in the sky.

It’s what the world should look like he thinks, when Nicky and he are apart. 

Nile gives him a nod and he sets off towards the other side of the building. Taking the crumbling steps two at time, he comes to a hallway. Peering in it, he counts four guards total. Far, far less than Merrick.

It takes Joe all of a minute before he takes them all out. He kicks open all four doors, revealing no one. He tries and fails to curb his frustration as he calls to Nile through the earpiece.

She gives him an all clear as well. They retrace their steps to where they started and Joe’s about to suggest another split up when a scream pierces the air.

He’s echoing it, moving towards it before he’s even realizing what he’s doing.

My Nicky. Nicolo. Nicolo. Nicolo.

I’ll kill them. I don’t care who they are, I’ll kill them. I’ll kill them. 

But Joe knows Nicky’s screams, the extent of injuries they connect to. This scream means none of them. 

This scream is reserved for when one of them gets hurt, and Joe’s heart is suddenly a leaden, lifeless thing in his chest as another name fills his mind. 

Andy. Andy. Andy 

“Nile come,” he says absently, already moving. His gun’s raised when he bursts into the room, and he remembers Nicky’s urge for him to exercise caution all too late. Nile remains out of the sight to kill off the last of the guards. 

A bullet pierces his heart, followed in quick succession by two more. He barely registers it even as he falls to his knees, barely registers the fact that it’s Quynh, the sister of his heart, who pulls the trigger. 500 years he hasn’t seen her but his eyes still go to Nicky first, they always do. He follows Nicky’s panicked gaze with dread that feels like crushed glass running through his veins. 

The pain in his chest vanishes as everything quietens. He’s never known such oppressive silence, never felt anything quite like this and he hadn’t thought that was possible after being alive for near millennia. 

It’s not pain, not yet. It’s just unbearable nothingness and for a second he thinks perhaps the bullets to his chest have really killed him this time. 

But Nicky is still alive so that can’t be the case. 

Joe’s died more times then he can ever count but this, this is the closest he’s ever felt to death. He feels like a child again in the face of it, scared, helpless. 

He sees nothing but Andy, eyes blank and lifeless as she seems to stare straight at him. He’s seen her wake a thousand times from death and a mildly hysterical part of his mind’s laughing cruelly for ever thinking he knew what death was. 

Because for the first time he realizes death isn’t the absence of a beating heart. It isn’t vacant eyes or pale skin. 

It’s the departure of a soul.


	9. Nile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath.

She enters the room Joe disappeared through, heavily favoring her right leg as she peers around the corner. She spots Quynh, and has all of a second to reel from the shock of seeing her in the flesh after feeling her drown for so long. There’s nothing but mania in her light brown eyes, nothing salvageable.

500 years drowning in an ocean. Nile doesn’t know why she expected any different. 

She lowers her gaze and that’s when she sees Joe on the ground, lying in a pool of his own blood. Every time he heals and manages to push himself up, Quynh puts another bullet through his head. Joe barely seems to feel it. Nicky’s screaming though, loud jarring screams that she doesn’t think she’ll ever forget as long as she lives. It speaks of pain she hopes she’ll never feel. Quynh’s looking at him as she kills Joe over and over again and the sheer cruelty of it flips her stomach. 

Even Booker’s struggling against his restraints, shouting at Quynh but when he spots Nile, he goes still.

She can’t see Andy from her position but she does when she swings out from behind the door and shoots Quynh in the leg. It’s enough to bring her to her knees, her gun clattering to the floor. Joe heals enough to rise up to his feet and points his gun at her heart.

But his fingers are shaking over the trigger, eyes full of tears.

“How could you? She loved you, more than anything,” he says raggedly.

Then he makes a loud keening noise, sobs wracking his entire body violently enough that Nicky lurches against his restraints hard enough to break his wrist. His eyes are shifting rapidly between Joe and Andy.

Andy. 

That’s when Nile finally really catches sight of Andy and the entire situation registers in her head. She can’t hold back her scream then, a mere echo of Joe’s. Andy’s slumped down against the wall and her lifeless eyes seem to burn through Nile’s very soul. She drops to her knees beside the woman, raising two fingers to the side of her neck. 

She knows what to expect but it still breaks her heart when she feels no pulse, no signs of life. Her tears are quick to follow as she remembers all Andy was in the admittedly short time they’d known each other. Andy, who’d come for her when she’d been lost and alone.

Andy who’d given her this beautiful family. Andy who’d trained her, who’d patted her hair sometimes in a way that reminded her of her mother, who’d still laughed and loved after losing so much.

“Nile. Nile.” 

The calls are anxious enough to catch her attention. She breaks through Nicky’s and Booker’s cuffs in somewhat of a haze before returning to Andy’s side. Booker pulls Andy into his arms, openly sobbing into her hair. 

Nicky’s shaking from where he’s crouched beside Andy, holding her limp hand in his. He still looks like he’s waiting for her to wake, eyes glued to her face with unwavering intensity. 

Nile stands up to join Joe’s side, who still has a quivering gun pointed at Quynh. She looks like a wounded animal on the other end of the gun, though Joe looks nothing like a hunter for the grief that ravages his features. Nile can see the near millennia he’s lived through then, and the agony he’s carried through a large part of it. 

The agony for this woman, this mad woman that had just killed him almost a dozen times in the last minute alone. 

“She should have come for me. You should have come for me. I spent 500 years drowning and you gave up,” Quynh lashes out.

Joe reels from each word like their physical blows and Nile braces him as best as she can. 

“We tried. Quynh we tried,” Joe pleads. 

Quynh’s head snaps away from him, like she’ll succumb if she stares into the raw grief in his eyes for too long. She turns away to look at Andy again, and her brow furrows.

“Why isn’t she healing,” she asks.

Open alarm crosses her features as she rounds on Joe with wide eyes. Joe’s clammed up, sunken in on himself and Nile answers for him. She doesn’t know this woman and although she felt her pain, her madness, she cannot excuse Andy’s death.

Andy was the center of this new, small world that Nile carved out for herself and she was gone. Just like that. Andromache the Scythian taken down by a single bullet through the head. 

The very idea had her blood boiling in her veins. 

“She was mortal,” Nile states, tripping over the word was.

“She’s not mortal,” Quynh exclaims, rapidly shaking her head. She picks up a gun off the floor and points it at them with shaky hands, like it’d protect her from the truth.

“It was her time Quynh,” Nicky says. His blue eyes are vacant, empty. The description Nile would use was completely and utterly shell shocked, like the very truths that formed the base of Nicky’s world had completed shattered. 

Quynh turns the gun on him and Joe’s darting forward in a second. 

“Quynh don’t,” he starts. His grip on his gun has suddenly steadied and pointed directly at her head. She doesn’t even seem to notice. 

“You’re lying. You’re lying,” Quynh says. She repeats it, over and over as she backs into the corner of the room. Her eyes remain fixed on Andy’s still form, and slowly the truth seems to sink into her.

And then she races across the room faster than Nile can register and drops to the ground beside Andy. Her sobs aren’t human, not in the slightest. She all but snatches Andy out of Booker’s hold and Nile feels a wave of nausea rolling through her as she sees Andy’s head lol to the side like a rag doll.

And Nile can’t help but think that for all Andy was in life, her death was the most pitiful thing she’d ever seen. 

“Andromache. Wake up. Wake up. I’ve just found you. We have time now. You need to wake up.”

The words are feral, uttered in a mix of languages that Nile can hardly comprehend. But the grief breaks through all language barriers and it’s finally Joe that kneels beside Quynh and slowly pulls her into his arms. Nile doesn’t know where he finds the heart to do that but she sure as hell can’t share in it. Quynh sobs into his shoulder, muttering apologies in Arabic, because she knows it’s him. 

And Nile knows that under all the anger, the madness, Quynh still cares. 

Joe grips her tighter, his other hand clenched around Andy’s still one. 

Nile’s still staring at that pale hand when it twitches, just barely. She thinks she’s imagining it when the fingers move again and Joe startles. Nicky’s beside him in an instant, muttering prayers under his breath. Even Quynh’s grief-stricken babbling ceases as they watch Andy.

She coughs once, twice before her eyes fly open. She lifts herself up with a loud gasp, that’s immediately covered by Quynh’s scream as she throws herself into Andy’s arms. Joe’s half screaming, half sobbing into Nicky’s shoulder. Nicky holds him steady as tears drip down his cheeks. With his free hand, he pulls her towards him and she finds herself enveloped into a bone crushing hug between Nicky and Joe. Nile peaks over Joe’s shoulder to find Booker staring at all of them with barely concealed longing on his face.

She extends a hand to him and he latches on to it. Joe stiffens, just barely as Booker’s arms wrap around him and Nicky, with her trapped in the middle.

“I shouldn’t have done what I did,” Booker admits. 

And the stiff expression on Nicky’s face melts just a little as he slowly wraps his own arm around Booker. Joe’s less accepting but he allows Booker’s arm. A temporary truce. A step in the right direction. 

With time, together, Nile’s sure these relationships will fix themselves. And that’s one thing that they have. Time. 

Beside them, Andy finally frees herself long enough from Quynh to hug them all.

“I told you it wouldn’t be your time yet,” Nicky says as she draws back. 

“You’ve always had more faith than me,” Andy replies, reaching out an arm to pull Quynh to her side.

“Even now,” he asks, looking at the two women and the joy that exists between them like a tangible, living being. 

Andy just smiles. Quynh’s joy fades ever so slightly as she catches sight of all the bullet holes riddling Joe’s shirt, the blood coating his face. 

“What I did,” she starts without direction.

“Is done now,” Joe finishes. Then he looks at Nicky with a smile that finally reaches his eyes, laugh lines making their appearance.

“Besides, Nicky and I have done far worse to each other and he is still the love of my life,” he says. 

It’s a terrible joke but it’s still enough to assuage some of Quynh’s guilt from what Nile can tell. 

Nicky grimaces a little at the mention of Joe’s death. Now that Andy’s awake and well, his entire attention is devoted to Joe, and more specifically the numerous holes through his shirt. Joe notices the staring and presses a chaste kiss to his lips, murmuring something that’s just for the two of them. They draw back and a silence descends over them all, for once heavy with contentment rather than grief or pain. 

There are still things to be fixed, like the way none of them still completely meet Booker’s gaze, like the way Nicky puts himself between Quynh and Joe, like the mania that’s no doubt still hidden behind the temporary joy that Quynh’s found at Andy’s resurrection. Nile’s not even sure the last one can be fixed. 

Not to mention the fact that Copley was still nowhere to be found. 

They were all incredibly broken but this family could survive anything. Nile was sure of few things in her life at this point, but this, this she would bet on.


	10. Joe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue in Malta.

He hadn’t envisioned their trip to Malta to be something like this, but with Andy and Quynh splitting off to goodness knows where after Copley had been taken care of, they’d brought Nile and Booker along with them. He knew Nicky needed to be away from Quynh, at least for a little while. Nicky wouldn’t admit to as much, and had even embraced the woman before they’d gone their separate ways but Joe knew Nicky better than anyone could ever really know anyone. 

And until Nicky stopped seeing her mania-induced rage that had Joe dying nine times at her hand, it wouldn’t be fair to either of them to put them under the same roof. 

Nicky’s telling a story that Joe’s heard more times than he can count, so he settles for watching the way the light reflects off of Nicky’s blue-green eyes as Nile devotes her attention to him.

Booker’s sprawled out beside him, sunglasses in place to block out the sun. The world. The whole universe. Joe doesn’t think twice before plucking the frames off his face rather aggressively and tossing it onto the grass.

Under normal circumstances, Booker would have told him to fuck off and put the sunglasses on again. As their relationship stands, on highly tenuous ground, Booker only makes a small sound of disapproval before letting his eyes drift shut. 

Joe’s attention goes back to looking at Nicky, who’s listening attentively as Nile shares an anecdote from her own childhood. Joe’s far too old to remember childhood stories anymore, but the bittersweet nostalgia that wraps around her every word is familiar. 

It’s how he feels when he looks at the world around him sometimes and marvels that he can still find a place within it.

He reaches into the bag they brought and digs out an old leather bound sketchbook. Nicky’s general form is easy to capture for how well he knows it, and the number of times he’s committed it to paper. Still, he spends time recreating the expression in Nicky’s eyes. Indulgent. Soft. Patient. 

Nicky looks at most people that way. It’s who he is, always ready to forgive and eager to learn from the world around him. It’s why his inability to get past Quynh’s rage hurts him more than it probably hurts Quynh herself. Joe had tried reassuring him that knowing the pain that drove Quynh didn’t mean he had to easily move on from the actions that her pain had fueled, but Nicky wasn’t convinced. It’s why Joe often finds himself wishing that Nicky could show himself a little more of the kindness, and fairness that he treats the world with. 

Nile’s harder to draw, but he captures her nevertheless. The youthful enthusiasm she desperately tries to curb if only to fit in with the rest of them. The drifting attention that’s taking in everything around her, even as Nicky’s saying something to her.

The sun’s low in the sky when he finishes and Booker’s long since drifted off. His head’s come to rest on Joe’s lap, and he has half a mind to push it off.

But he doesn’t, and Nicky’s all too pleased with it. He gives him a corny thumbs up, no doubt Nile’s influence, and Joe feels a little too old to be on the receiving end of it even as he grins begrudgingly. It’s Nile that jostles Booker awake and he grumbles, and swears before lifting himself off the ground. They walk back to their villa just as the sun sets, casting brilliant shades of orange and yellow across the azure ocean.

Nile watches it with awe, nudging Booker to share in at least a part of her enthusiasm. Booker only rolls his eyes but after more of Nile’s insistent prodding, Booker’s eyes finally fix on the sunset and a faint smile crosses his face.

And Joe mentally captures the image, to recreate it on paper for when he isn’t pissed at Booker. 

“I’ve not seen him smile like that in a long time,” Nicky says from beside him.

“Didn’t know he was capable of it,” Joe replies. It doesn’t come across as lighthearted as he’d wished for it to, but Nicky doesn’t push. 

Joe draws Nicky against him, resting his head on his shoulder. They’ve stood like this before, watching the very same sunset. He’s painted this ocean with almost every medium of art he’s ever dabbled in. He’s swum in these waters, and long ago, he’d washed off blood in it too. 

Nicky’s hand settles on his and he squeezes lightly.

“Here Yusuf. We’re here now,” he says.

And so Joe holds Nicky a little more tightly and watches the sunset like he’s watching it for the first time. He’s struck by the thought then, that perhaps it’s not so terrible that everything’s shifting so quickly around them. 

Not when those changes come in the form of a girl who’s eyes he can look through to see the world anew, and a man who’s finally beginning to process his grief of over 200 years.

“This is all actually very new,” he murmurs softly. 

“It is,” Nicky agrees.

There’s a little wonder in both their voices, though Joe can’t tell from what exactly. Perhaps it’s that things can still be new to them after so long. 

Or perhaps because it doesn’t seem so frightening. 

Nicky tilts his head back to look Joe in the eye and they’re both smiling. He feels a little drunk, a little heady and he’s smiling too much to kiss Nicky properly but their lips meet anyway. 

And as the sun sets, Joe swears he can feel the rise of a new dawn on the horizon.


End file.
